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Thursday, 27 July 2017

Clerical Errors, Volume 2

There is a supreme irony I think in that just at the time that
support for the Church of England waned especially in towns and industrial
cities, there was a dramatic increase in the number of its clergymen…a doubling
in numbers from Queen Victoria’s accession in 1837 to 28,000 on her death
sixty-four years later. Most lived inconsequential lives ministering to their
flocks with varying degrees of success but a few achieved notoriety because of
their misconduct, something that was widely reported in the local and national
press. In the case of the slander trial of Rev. Turberville Cory-Thomas shared
the front pages with news of the Queen’s death. The problem, until the Clergy
Discipline Act of 1893 streamlined the process, was that it was extremely
difficult to remove a clergyman from his living. Using obtuse ecclesiastical
law and top lawyers, clerics could defy efforts to remove them at immense cost
in litigation for the church itself. The author of this excellent book draws on
his unique database of Victorian clerical scandals to examine five cases of
clerical conduct that ended before the courts.

Parson Young's Night Out –At the turn of the twentieth century,
the Rev. Charles Gordon Young a boisterous Yorkshire man was rector of a posh
parish in Chipstead, a quiet Surrey village. He was initially popular in the
pulpit and on the cricket ground but his critics suspected that he drank too
much. Despite attempts to get the Rev. Young to moderate his drinking, he
steadfastly refused to do so denying that he had any problems with alcohol.
Matters came to a head when the local ‘swells’ of Chipstead found their
clergyman in a notorious London club with a lady of the evening upon his knee.
The result was a legal case in which he was found guilty of being drunk on
‘divers occasions’ and was defrocked. This was almost the end of the matter yet
many people in Chipstead felt that the rector had been badly treated and
regretted the loss of a clergyman of undoubted ability.

A Case of Heartless Villainy - His prospects blighted, his
health ruined, the Rev. Richard Marsh Watson made a living in a clerical agency
and selling sermons and he also went in for blackmail. Having seduced his wife's
sister, Watson required her to purchase his silence. When she, at last, refused
to pay, the ensuing trial that saw Watson sentenced to 12 years penal
servitude, shocked all Britain. Still, as one newspaper wondered, ‘What are we
to think of the young women who yielded to the advances of a scrofulous parson
with one leg?’

A Clerical Lothario - The Rev. Turberville Cory-Thomas,
complimented frequently on his ‘dagger moustache’, was quite popular with the
church ladies in the rapidly growing parish of Acton Green in West London. His
vicar, Mr Spink, praised him regularly until Mr. Cory-Thomas, who was a
widower, was accused of attempting to seduce two sisters--one over lunch at
Gatti’s, the other in a grim bedsit near Euston Station. Cory-Thomas was
immediately dismissed by his vicar after an acrimonious meeting of which both
parties later gave different accounts. The ensuing slander trial that
Cory-Thomas brought and lost shared the front pages with news of Queen
Victoria's death.

I'll Do for Dicky Rodgers - A summer outing on the Broads was
under the charge of the Rev. Edward Rodgers, curate of Lowestoft. Too much sun,
too much smoke and drink at the ‘after-party’ in the pub and Rodgers was poorly.
A local youth offered to help him home. What happened in the darkened lane
between the hedgerows? George Rix began telling everyone, ‘He must have thought
I was his wife.’ Rumours of what had happened quickly spread throughout
Lowestoft and his vicar tried to persuade Rodgers, who said Rix made the whole
thing up, to quietly resign. Rodgers won the subsequent slander trial and
though his character was cleared it was several years before he received a new
living in Nottinghamshire.

The Irreproachable Mr. Karr-Handsome, sporting and the darling
of the raffish set at Berkeley Castle was the Rev. John Seton-Karr. In the town,
however, the vicar's suavity may have gone too far. Was Mr. Karr's gift of satin
dancing shoes to William Gaisford a local solicitor's wife in any way
appropriate? But when Mrs. Gaisford, known for her extraordinary teeth, called
upon Mr. Karr at his London hotel, sensational rumours were aroused leading to a
series of legal battles initiated by the furious William Gaisford that,
literally, worried a Bishop to death. Gaisford’s attempt to prosecute Karr
before the ecclesiastical court and the civil court for criminal conversation
both failed. Karr remained as vicar of Berkeley until 1871 outliving the
Gaisfords.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It written with verve
and is eminently readable. It’s sometimes difficult to make legal cases
interesting but for Tom Hughes this is not a problem. The five cases are
well-chosen and retain the reader’s interest throughout. I look forward to
Volume 3